3-D PUZZLEMANIA ... HEAVY ON THE MANIC PART

I almost buy myself a Christmas gift. Yup, I really do.  I see it in the store and I think, "Oh, man, that would be cool when it's all done."

I'm talking about a 3-D puzzle.  No, not the ones you have to build in 3-D like the damn Eiffel Tower that falls apart when you screw up one little piece.  I mean puzzles where the puzzle is 2-D but the picture itself is 3-D.

I see the boxes at the specialty store, and I start moving around the box, left to right, up and down, because the picture on the front of the box, being 3-D, is fascinating to me.  I can almost see "behind" the items in the front of the picture.  There's a depth to the picture that tricks me into believing that there are spaces behind the characters, even though my brain tells me this cannot be.

Surely this 3-D picture is really 2-D.  It's on the front of a box, for chrissakes.


I do know Santa is bringing me two puzzles, though.  One is from my sister and her family via Santa; the other one I had to buy because it was a bunch of cats, so it's from me to myself via Santa.  My first challenging puzzle when I was a kid was an octagonal puzzle loaded with cats, and I saw this one (kind of modernistic), so I bought it.

(See?  Even the picture hurts my eye!)

Standing in front of the 3-D puzzle, I wonder if it would be a good thing to try.  The price isn't too bad, and it's not too many pieces.  These are pluses, in my book.  But ... and this is huge ... I have a hard enough time seeing the regular shapes and colors and nuances of the small pieces.  Imagine if these are complicated with 3-D special effects?  Will my eyes start freaking out?  Will this give me migraines?  Will it be like psychological warfare just trying to put the edges together?

Then it dawns on me that if I am even thinking these crazy-ass thoughts, I probably shouldn't get myself the puzzle.  Puzzles should be relatively fun and semi-relaxing.  I shouldn't be comparing a puzzle-solving experience to terrorism and mustard gas.  These thoughts alone make me wonder why these puzzles are in the toy section of the store when they should perhaps be in sporting goods (except that I doubt The Paper Store has a sporting goods section, although the designs on Vera Bradley bags and clothing could probably be used close-up to torture suspects).

Yes, the puzzle would be cool when it's all done, but it won't be done by me.  Not today, anyway.  Of course, the fact that it is still on my mind worries me.  I have a sneaking suspicion that it might end up under the tree, after all.

My eyeballs hurt just thinking about it.